Editing Anthony Perkins (section)

===Character and interests===
Perkins was largely remembered by friends and associates as being a shy, neurotic young man, with the ability to be very alluring. Bruce Jay Friedman, a later collaborator of Perkins's in the production ''Steambath'', remarked, "He was enormously charming, but also very controlled. He always seemed to have four ideas going on in his head at once."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=293}} [[Mary Tyler Moore]], who worked with Perkins on the hugely popular ''First, You Cry'' TV movie, remembered Perkins similarly: "He was a charming person, a very keen actor who seemed to love his work{{nbsp}}... He was just a nice guy, and not what I had expected at all. I had expected him to be arch and very sophisticated and stylish–and I'm sure he was all those things–but that's not what you most remembered about him."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=377}}

Although former partner Tab Hunter remembered Perkins similarly, he was more open about acknowledging the complexities of Perkins: "You never really knew Tony a hundred percent. He was a bit of a game player with people's minds."<ref name="Tab Hunter Confidential"/> However, he also saw Perkins as being a multi-layered, realistic person with flaws:
<blockquote>I don't think many people really knew Tony well. He had friends. A lot of people liked him, but he had few friends that he really confided in. I don't know for sure what he was really like. You always saw what Tony wanted you to see, which was kind of sad in many ways{{nbsp}}... He was a wonderful guy, and he had a very funny, very dry sense of humor.

In our society everyone wants to know everything about everybody 100 percent. And you never really knew everything that was going on with Tony. It was still water that ran pretty deep.<ref name="sensesofcinema.com"/></blockquote>

Perkins's shy, introverted personality led to one-man activities. Since he was a young boy, he was often preoccupied with books and adored reading. When asked, he playfully admitted he was a lover of science fiction, but he could not stand brooding philosophical books.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0671713/|title=Carol Burnett vs. Anthony Perkins (S2E50)|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> This went hand-in-hand with his interest in writing, which he indulged in throughout life. While at Browne & Nichols School, he was made co-literary editor of the school paper, ''The Spectator'', to which he occasionally contributed articles.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=35}} This interest made its way into his professional life, when Perkins cowrote ''The Last of Sheila'' with Stephen Sondheim years later. It was the only time he wrote a screenplay, as Perkins reflected years later: "Acting was just memorizing lines, and I was good at that. Writing was harder and required more work."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=37}}

However uninterested in interaction Perkins was, his interests were not solely solitary. Perkins was a fan of the board game Scrabble, and when entertaining his first alleged boyfriend, he often engaged him in a round. He was also a fan of ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'', which he eventually appeared on during his heyday.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=90}} This interest in games and television programs lent itself to the many victories Perkins achieved in game shows such as ''[[Password (American game show)|Password]]'', where he got his partner to guess the secret word. Even his regular impersonations of famous actors and costars did him good when he appeared on ''[[What's My Line?]]'' and fooled the panelists.

His wit was not the only thing employed during activities. Tab Hunter remembered Perkins purchasing a deluxe portable ping-pong table for him one Christmas. "We set it up on the terrace and played marathon matches."{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=138}} His shrewdness, though, made frequent appearances during their private meetings and dates: "On occasion, Tony would go with me to the barn or go to a show I was riding in, but he wasn't crazy about horses. Sometimes we'd head up to Watson Webb's place at Lake Arrowhead to water-ski. He wasn't the athletic type, however. His amusement came from using his quirky, brainy charm and extremely dry humor."{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=137}}